Brick.ie The Irish Association for Adult Fans of LEGO®

So in 2008 I built a model of the pet shop my sister was running as a modular building. There were some things I'd do differently now, but I was happy enough with it as a build.

However, during 2009, I got commissioned to build a model of a post office for An Post. As the deadline was really tight, I just built a new ground floor and borrowed the upper floors from the pet shop.

This went down well, but the poor pet shop has sat on a shelf all these years with no top half, so wasn't really displayable.

I finally got around to recreating the upper floors. I decided to more or less copy the originals, though I had to make a few tweaks.

Brenda's Pets by James Shields, on Flickr

Brenda's Pets - Shop Front by James Shields, on Flickr

Brenda's Pets - Through the front window by James Shields, on Flickr

In particular it seemed a great opportunity to try out the new "Firefly" lighting from Penneys. This is similar to the old lighting (still available from Penny's). However instead of each LED being on a stalk, they are in line in the wire, and the wires are super thin, so they can fit through the gaps between elements, making them easy to get into places the old ones wouldn't fit, and much easier to wire into a model. I was able to fit some lights into the fish tank, for example.

Brenda's Pets - with the top off by James Shields, on Flickr

Brenda's Pets - Lighting by James Shields, on Flickr

The old version was fairly bare inside the upper floors, but the lighting means I really needed some interior details. So far I've added a sitting room and a bedroom.

Brenda's Pets - Upstairs sitting room by James Shields, on Flickr

Brenda's Pets - Upstairs bedroom by James Shields, on Flickr

Brenda's Pets - Roof by James Shields, on Flickr